Chapter 1- DH

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Harry ran back upstairs to his bedroom, arriving at the window just in time to see the Dursley's car swinging out of the drive and off up the road. The car turned right at the end of Privet Drive, its windows burned scarlet for a moment in the now setting sun, and then it was gone. 

Harry picked up Hedwig's cage, his firebolt and his rucksack, gave his unnaturally tidy bedroom one last sweeping look and then made his way back downstairs to the hall, where he deposited the cage, broomstick and bag near the foot of the stairs. The light was fading rapidly now, the hall full of shadows in the evening light. 

It felt almost strange to stand here in silence and know that he was about to leave the house for the very last time. Long ago, when he had been left alone while the Dursleys went out to enjoy themselves, the hours of solitude had been a rare treat: pausing only to sneak downstairs and get a tasty snack from the fridge, he had rushed back upstairs to play on Dudley's computer or flick through the TV channels to his heart's content. 

It gave him an odd, empty feeling to remember those times; it was like remembering a younger brother whom he had lost.  

"Don't you want to take a last look at the place?" he asked Hedwig who was still sulking with her head under her wing. "We'll never be here again. don't you want to remember the good times? I mean, look at this doormat, Dudley puked on it when I saved him from the dementors...turns out he was grateful after all. And the front door, when Dumbledore walked through it last summer..."

Harry lost the thread in his head for a moment and Hedwig did nothing to help him retrieve it. 

There was a sudden, deafening roar from somewhere nearby. Harry straightened up with a jerk and staggered into the kitchen and stared out of the window into the back garden. 

The darkness seemed to be rippling, the air itself quivering. Then, one by one, figures began to pop into sight as their Disillusionment Charm lifted. The scene was Hagrid, wearing goggles and a helmet and was sitting astride with an enormous motorbike with a black sidecar attached. All around him other people were dismounting from brooms and in two cases, skeletal black winged horses. 

Wrenching open the back door, Harry hurtled into their midst. There was a general cry of greeting as Hermione flung her arms around Harry's neck and Ron clapped him on the back. After Hermione had let go and moved beside Ron, Harry got a clear view of a petite girl he hadn't seen in weeks. It was Elizabeth. Harry let out a breath and walked up to her. 

"I missed you," he whispered. 

"I missed you too," she hugged him tightly, scared that if she let go, she would have to say goodbye. 

Once they let go, Harry spoke, "I wasn't expecting so many of you!" 

"Change of plans," growled May-Eye, who was holding two enormous, bulging sacks and whose magical eye was spinning from the darkening sky to the house to the garden.

"Let's get you undercover before we talk you through it,"

Harry led them into the living room, where they stood waiting for the plan, Arthur guarded the front door, Kingsley guarded the backdoor while Tonks and Lupin looked out the window. 

"Harry, guess what?" said Tonks from her perch on the window sill, she wiggled her left hand at him; a ring glittered there.

"You got married?!" Yelped Harry, looking from her to Lupin. 

"The best news of 1997," said Elizabeth, Harry looked at her. "Apart from, of course, seeing you..." She smiled and dashed off to Fleur.

"I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet."

"That's brilliant, congrat-"

"All right, all right, we'll have time for a cosy catch-up later!" Roared Moody. Silence fell over the room. Moody dropped the sacks at his feet and turned to Harry. "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon plan A. Pius Thicknesse had gone over, which gave us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offence to connect this house to the Floo network, place a Portkey over here or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent you-know-who getting in at you. absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already. The second problem, you've still got the trace on you."

"I don't-"

"It's a charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about your underage magic. If you or anyone around you casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknessse will know, so will the death eaters." Elizabeth explains softly. 

"Which means, you still have it too?" Elizabeth nods, adjusting her stance. "So what are we doing to do?"

"We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the once the trace can't detect, no do we have to use a spell on them. Brooms, Therestrals and Hagrid's motorbike." Harry nodded. 

"Won't it be pretty obvious that Harry is flying? I mean, no one here actually looks like him... or me for that matter." 

"Ah I forgot to mention the key point," said Moody. "There will be four Harrys and four Elizabeths flying through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion all heading for the Burrow." 

From inside his cloak, Moody withdrew two flasks of what looked like mud. There was no need to say another word because both of the potters knew the plan immediately. 

"No!" They both said loudly. "No way!" Harry said. 

"Told you they'd take it well." 

"If you think we're going to let six people risk their lives-!" 

"-because it's the first time for all of us." Said Ron.

"This is different, becoming us, pretending to be us," 

"None of us really fancy it mate," said Fred earnestly.
"Imagine if something went wrong, we end up as specky, scrawny gits... forever!" Although Harry did not smile, it amused Elizabeth.  

After much debate, Hermione decided to pull a few strands of hair from both heads. Hermione put the hairs into the flasks. As soon as it made contact with its surface, the potion began to froth and smoke, then all at once it turned a clear bright gold. 

"Look familiar Hermione?" Joked Elizabeth. She glared playfully at her. As Elizabeth watched them all change she realised George, Fleur and Ron changed to her. 

"Hey, Elizabeth! I'm you!" Said, George. "You're so small." She whacked him on the arm. 

Once all changed, Moody spoke, "The pairs will be as followed: Mundungus you'll be with me-"

"Why'm I with you?" Grunted the Harry nearest the back door. 

"Because you're the one who needs watching."

"Arthur and Fred, George with Remus, Miss Delacour-"

"I'm taking Fleur on a Thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms." 

"Miss Granger and Kingsley, again by Thestral-" Hermione looked reassured as she answered Kinglsey's smile. 

"Elizabeth with Charlie-" As he said that, someone apparated in the back garden. They walked in. 

"Charlie Weasley." Elizabeth walked and stood by him. 

"That leaves you and me Ron!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a mug tree as she waved at him. Ron did not feel as reassured as Hermione did.  



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